This blog chronicles the adventures of the sailing vessel Moonraker. We just finished the second year of our cruising life. We explored the US East Coast from Maine to Florida, the Bahamas, Haiti, PR, and the Virgin Islands.

Profile for Moonraker

Crew:

Bill & Donna Shuman

Hailing Port:

Annapolis, MD

About:

This blog will record our adventures as we continue our new cruising life. This summer (2013) we plan to head north and explore the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia. We will return to Annapolis in the fall for the SSCA GAM and then head south on the ICW to Florida. We plan to spend the winter in the southern Bahamas and maybe as far as the BVI. In the spring of 2014 we will return to Annapolis for a few months to get ready for a longer trip that fall. Then we will take off again for points unknown. Eventually we may go all the way around the world.

SomethingExtra:

Moonraker was built in 1986 and had two owners before we bought her in 2005. After spending nearly two years on the hard making all the repairs and improvements that I had promised Donna we wouldn’t have to do if we bought her, we were finally ready to go sailing. For the next several years we sailed weekends on the Chesapeake. In 2009 everything changed when we set a date to go cruising; May 2012. Suddenly the dream was real. In June of 2011 we took a two week shakedown cruise circumnavigating the Delmarva Peninsula. It was really a shakedown of us not the boat. On July 15, 2012 we finally started our cruising life. We explored New England as far as Casco Bay in Maine visiting wonderful places like Nantucket, Narragansett Bay, Long Island Sound and the East River through New York City. After nearly two months in Annapolis doing boat projects, we headed south on November 15th. We did the entire ICW (every mile) from Norfolk to Key Biscayne and then spent the winter in the Bahamas. It was a wonderful first year. Now we are on the move again and loving it!